I’m at a loss for words, so I will keep this short. Austin Bice, an American study abroad student in Madrid, has been missing for the last week. He’s 22-years-old, 6’5″ and 230 lbs. Whether in Spain, or Europe, please do what you can to spread the word so that he may be found. Meanwhile, if you are in Madrid and have a free moment to help with the search, please do. Today they conducted a search for him and, as far as I understand, these searches will be ongoing until he is found. For the moment, there only appear to be Facebook event pages (here’s the one from today) set up for the searches, so if more details become available, I will update this post.

Unbeknown to me, I’m connected to him via a couple of friends from back home – they’ve described him as a “good kid” and “just an all around great guy, excellent basketball player, super smart.”

Below are links to a few articles with more details about his disappearance. Please send good thoughts for a happy ending.

Update: Very sadly, this story did not have a happy ending. My thoughts have been with the family and friends everyday, throughout the day. That said, I can’t really bring myself to write a jolly, light-hearted blog about Spain right now, which would just seem so trivial in light of this news. So, until next week…